Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet is the latest book from Michael Klare, Director of the Peace and World Security Studies Program of the Five College Consortium in Amherst Massachusetts. Professor Klare has written widely on U.S. defense policy, the arms trade, and world security affairs. He has authored several books, and is the defense correspondent of The Nation and a Contributing Editor of Current History.

In this show, we discuss the geopolitics of resource competition. Nations are engaging in a dangerous zero sum game as they jostle over finite supplies of fossil fuels, including the positioning of opposing advanced weapons systems in unstable parts of the world. Will global warfare be the result, or is the current economic breakdown an opportunity to realize that the only workable “rescue package” is one that recognizes resource limits and the need for allocation of scarce goods and services towards productive ends, such as sustainable agriculture and renewable energy systems?